Transgender on TV

This Wednesday I watched what I think is a historic night on broadcast television. I watched two shows back to back on different networks that each feature transgender actors playing transgender characters in ongoing supporting cast roles.

First up was “Star” on Fox with Amiyah Scott.

She plays Cotton, the daughter of Queen Latifah’s character and the episode actually featured a storyline showing how intimately people are harmed by anti-trans rhetoric and “prayers.”

Next I watched “Doubt” on CBS where Laverne Cox plays an attorney. She had a wonderful line where she talks to Dule Hill’s character, a colleague of hers working in the same firm. They are discussing a young client and she brings up that she had no idea when she was that age that such wonderful things lie ahead for her. It was only later that she started working at the firm and transitioned.

Now, “Star” is doing very well on Fox. But I have just learn to my great dismay that not only has “Doubt” done poorly in the ratings it has been pulled from the CBS schedule effective immediately. After so much development and ado, after it had been hailed as the lone holdout of “diversity” on CBS, after the historic casting of our beloved Laverne Cox as the first transgender actor to be cast in a supporting role…

This is why I keep this blog. As a memory not only to the shows that succeeded, but the ones that were over so quickly they are but a twinkle in the eye of TV history. And history was indeed made.